distract/detract

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:10 PM -0500 3/4/09, Mark Mandel wrote:
>*Is* that a malapropism, or an intransitivization/object-drop?

Or, to steal Jerry's thunder, a blend of intrans. "detract from" +
trans. "distract ___ from".  (Cf. the reanalysis of "convince that" >
"convince to" on the basis of the analogy with "persuade", and the
detract/distract case has phonological resemblance going for it too.)

LH

>
>Mark Mandel
>
>On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 10:52 AM, Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at att.net> wrote:
>>  /The Nation./ editorial this week, after the neat exhortation ("Lyndon
>>  Johnson's War on Poverty was lost in the jungles of Vietnam. ? We must
>>  work to ensure that Obama's investment in America's future isn't
>>  squandered in the mountains of Afghanistan"), rather spoils the effect
>>  by going on, "But these questions should not _distract_ from what was
>>  an eloquent call to mobilize.....&c."
>>  AM
>
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